Bling Bling Broke: Tough choices for tough times - Black Spending Habits off the Chain
These are tough economic times, especially for African-Americans, for whom the unemployment rate is more than 10%. Alarmingly, rather than belt-tightening, the response has been to spend more. In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite dishes and expensive new cars. According to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spend a significant amount of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived, we spent $22.9 billion on clothes, $3.2 billion on electronics and $11.6 billion on furniture to put into homes that, in many cases, were rented. Among our favorite purchases are cars and liquor. Blacks make up only 12% of the U.S. population, yet account for 30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, which is 80% black, is the world's No. 1 market for Cognac. So impressed was Lincoln with the $46.7 billion that blacks spent on cars that the automaker commissioned Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, the entertainment and fashion mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator replete with six plasma screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation 2. The only area where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million in 2002. [more ] Pictured above: The" Cashville all Black Pimp Cup" on sale at Icedout gear .com for $39.95 [here ]

• PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Africans: the current Bling Bling culture is totaly irresponsible & nearsighted  on our part . Black people should be the last to worship diamonds given the suffering our people on the continent endure  because of the wars [more ], rape (figurative and literal) and destruction caused by the diamond trade . Truth is , most of us don't know about the evils of the diamond trade ; not even our own press covers it , that I've seen . We need our own PETA type movement for Diamonds  Rather than PETA standing for People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals [more ]it should be People For The Ethical Treatment Of Africans  . The stuff going on over Diamonds is appalling, yet all the US media covers is stuff about mink coats , lab animals and burgers . BW Contributor Greg Fuller